The present invention relates to non-invasive methods and systems for generating sensory experiences within the human neural cortex.
A conventional technique for generating neural activity in the human nervous system requires surgical implants. The implants may comprise wires that cause electronic impulses to interact with some portion of the human nervous system, such as the human neural cortex, and thereby cause neural activity in the human neural cortex. Researchers have successfully mapped audio sensory data to the cochlear channel, and visual data to the visual cortex.
Conventional invasive techniques have several drawbacks. First, surgical implants may cause patient trauma and medical complications during and/or after surgery. Second, additional or on-going surgery may be required, particularly if new technology is developed.
The present invention solves the foregoing drawbacks by providing a non-invasive system and process for generating/projecting sensory data (visual, audio, taste, smell or touch) within/onto the human neural cortex.
One embodiment of the system comprises a primary transducer array and a secondary transducer array. The primary transducer array acts as a coherent or nearly-coherent signal source. The secondary transducer array acts as a controllable, acoustical diffraction pattern that shapes, focuses and modulates energy from the primary transducer onto the neural cortex in a desired pattern. The secondary transducer emits acoustical energy that may be shifted in phase and amplitude relative to the primary array emissions.
The pattern of energy is constructed such that each portion of the pattern projected into the neural cortex may be individually pulsed at low frequency. The system produces low frequency pulsing by controlling the phase differences between the emitted energy of the primary and secondary transducer array elements. The pulsed ultrasonic signal alters the neural timing in the cortex. Changes in the neural firing timing induce various sensory experiences depending on the location of the firing timing change in the cortex. The mapping of sensory areas of the cortex is known and used in current surgically invasive techniques. Thus, the system induces recognizable sensory experiences by applying ultrasonic energy pulsed at low frequency in one or more selected patterns on one or more selected locations of the cortex.
One of the advantages of the present system is that no invasive surgery is needed to assist a person, such as a blind person, to view live and/or recorded images or hear sounds.